Passion

Persistence is an obvious component in achieving your goals, but do you realize it's actually the most important component there is? Many will tell you why you shouldn't bother expecting big results if you have no natural talent. While it is true that talent is important, it's false to believe that anyone is just given talent.

People with supposed natural ability work hard to get to the outstanding levels of skill they're known for. Often times what you see is the aftermath of all their extremely dedicated hard work and undying persistence. In fact most individuals that are viewed as natural talents would likely be offended if you told them that is why they are who they are. It's essentially a slap in the face to all the blood, sweat and tears they've poured into their craft.

Quitting is Always Just a Decision Away

It may sound oversimplified, but it's really true. Think back to all the times you've decided to quit something and then actually followed through on giving up. There may have been many reasons behind you deciding to do so, but in the end it all boiled down to that final decision and then it was over.

Even if it's something that you truly love, the option to quit is always there. Yet as we all know, quitting something, for better or worse, is often times easier said than done. So what brings you back to what you felt so certain you wanted to give up? Clearly it's persistence. Whether it's a strong love for something, a craving, peer pressure, fear of the unknown or any number of other things, it all equates to persistence.

Motivation Won't Always be on Tap

I'm not going to lie to you and say that you can just turn a faucet and out pours motivation to scratch whenever needed. If you're familiar with my articles than you know I've written a lot about how to stay motivated towards your scratch goals. The funny thing about learning and knowledge is that it can be something you're not always ready for or able to summon when you most need it.

This is where persistence comes in. It's most vital when frustration has taken hold of you to the point of an overwhelming desire to give up. For me personally it has easily been my biggest ally through all the growing pains I've experienced in my many, many years of scratching. I can't begin to tell you how many let downs, disappointments and periods of practically abandoning scratching I've been through. I don't share my darker moments to discourage you, but rather so you understand that a true love for what you do will always outshine any negativity you face.

Major Breakthroughs

You never know when your biggest breakthroughs will occur. In all honesty I'd say most of mine came over a decade after I began scratching. Will it take you that long? Hopefully not, which is why I've created and continue to create helpful scratch resources for you to learn from.

However, focusing on how long it takes you to achieve something is not nearly as important as how efficient and persistent you are. After all, once you've achieved something, you've achieved it so it's almost irrelevant how long it took. What matters more is what will you do with your achievements and how persistent will you be at your next round of goals.

Perhaps Quitting is What You Want?

Obviously, I can't make that decision for you. Not everything we take on in life is worth seeing all the way through. It takes some real introspective thinking to decide what's worth moving on from. There are even elements within scratching worth dropping. However, if you truly love scratching, I guarantee persistence will be there with you every step of the way.

Persistence Development

The best thing about persistence is you don't have to treat it like some unfathomable pie in the sky that comes to your aid from time to time. While my passion for music and art is what mostly kept things alive for so long, the truth is most of my strongest attributes in persistence were developed from direct and indirect training with minds much more persistent than my own in more recent years.

Great minds like Napoleon Hill, Michael Gerber and Seth Godin are just a few of the people that have had a major impact in my continuing forward with scratching for what I consider to be a lifetime journey that I'll never grow truly weary of. It is because of what these people have done for me that I strongly recommend you to seek out mentors of your own. Whether you learn from direct training or simply read a few books, it's an excellent next step in taking your persistence to the next level.